Asgiriya Stadium is one of the famous stadiums in Sri Lanka after the country attained Test status and all international matches were played there until the construction of the Pallekelle Stadium International Stadium which has now taken over as the main centre in Kandy to host international matches.
Most of the world’s great cricketers who visited the country have played at Asgiriya. To name some of them - Frank Worrell, Fazal Mahmood, Bill Lawry, Colin Cowdrey, John Edrich, Tony Greig, Jack Hobbs, Leslie Ames, Lindsay Hassett, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajith Wadekar, Geoff Boycott, Kapil Dev, Intikhab Alam, Majid Khan, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Mushtaq Mohamed, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Akram, Greg and Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Bob Simpson, and Shane Warne.
Once when Robin Marlar the famed cricket writer, visited Asgiriya he noted that the ground was comparable with the best in the world. It was in 1910 that permission was granted to start work at Asgiriya by the white sahibs. The principal of Trinity College at that time, Rev. A.G. Fraser was the man behind the construction. It was completed in 1915 and the ground was ceremonially opened by Sir Robert Charmers, the Governor of Ceylon, on January 15, 1915.On this day a cricket match was played between combined past and present students of Trinity College against Dr. V.R. Schokman’s team from Colombo. The first delivery was sent down by R. Ellawela to Trinity’s Richard Aluvihare and it is said that it was lofted to the mid wicket boundary. The happiest man on that day would have been the man behind this project, the principal Rev. A.G. Fraser.
The first inter school game to be played at Asgiriya was between Trinity and S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia on January 25, 1915 and the Trinitians won by an innings. Before the Asgiriya ground was built Trinity used the Bogambara grounds. Since that time various changes have taken place at this ground. The old pavilion still stands. After 67 years the late Gamini Dissanayake who was the president of Sri Lanka Cricket with the help of Abu Fuard who was the power behind the throne worked endless hours used modern machinery and within a short period of 150 days made the ground into an International Stadium with all facilities. On June 6, 1981 Gamini Dissanayake, as president of the Cricket Board, cut the first sod to start work and on February 5, 1982 , the then president of the country J. R. Jayewardene ceremonially opened the stadium amidst a vast gathering.
Within a few days the first International cricket match was played at Asgiriya between Keith Fletcher’s England and the Sri Lanka side led by Duleep Mendis.
The first official test to be played at this venue was between Greg Chappell’s Australian side and Duleep Mendis led Sri Lanka team. From this day onwards most of the visiting teams played Test and one day games at this venue.
Asgiriya has an excellent pavilion consisting of three floors, the ground floor exclusively for players, umpires and officials, with all the facilities. The other two floors accommodate over 1500 spectators.
The turf wicket at Asgiriya was prepared by T.M. Omardeen under the supervision of Abu Fuard who coordinated on behalf of the Cricket Board, with J.D. Shaw Wilson as the first curator, later Alex Lazarus was the curator. Trinitians of all walks of life extended their fullest support to Gamini Dissanayake. The chairman of the project was late Rev. Dr. W.G. Wickremasinghe, Principal of Trinity at that time. S. Bandaranayake, late H.M. Halimdeen, Harindra Dunuwille, late Kavan Rambukwella, Jayantha Jayawardene, late Rohan Wijenayake all old boys of Trinity, Gamini Kannangara and S. Mubarak from the Water Resources Board were some of the officials who did a tremendous amount of work to make this ground an International stadium.
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